Mitt: Cash won't approach Obama's

Mitt Romney said Thursday that he won't come close to matching President Barack Obama's financial firepower in 2012, faulting Obama for taking time to raise money when he already has a strong advantage.

Romney's comments came at a press conference in Allentown, Pa., where he was visiting a shuttered metal works. Obama is raising money in Philadelphia for his reelection campaign this afternoon.

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Repeating one of this year's frequent GOP mantras, Romney warned that Obama will raise a billion dollars in 2012.

"We're not gonna raise anywhere near that kind of money," he said.

Romney is an unlikely financial underdog, given his personal wealth and background in the private equity business. But his position in the fundraising race became a bit clearer this week when his campaign put out word that Romney's total fundraising for the second quarter of the year would amount to less than $20 million.

That's a big sum, but it's a fraction of the $60 million that Obama's campaign has said it intends to raise over the same period.

Romney attacked Obama in Allentown for having visited the same metal works before it closed, touting it as a sign that the stimulus was working. In this case it didn't, Romney said.

"The president's a nice guy and I know he's trying, but he doesn't understand how the economy works," Romney said. "This president came here, called this a symbol of hope. It's a symbol of failure."